Multicultural Children’s Book Day Co-Hosts
The following is a list of hand-selected children’s book advocates, writers, and bloggers who work with the MCBD Team by extending the reach and spreading the word about Multicultural Children’s Book Day. They are our CoHosts.
These CoHosts and Global CoHost’s sites will also host the wildly-popular book review/blog post-link-up that occurs during the last week in January. We would appreciate it if you could take a few minutes and visit each of these excellent blogs. These reviewers and powerhouse bloggers were selected by the MCBD team because of their true dedication to supporting diversity in children’s literature.
A Crafty Arab
Koloud Tarapolsi is a Libyan American quilling artist and an Arab world & Muslim cultural blogger on ACraftyArab.com. She creates free crafts, recipes & downloads for kids to educate them about the Middle East & North Africa (MENA) region. Her blog also includes hundreds of MENA books, reviews, and book lists for educators to use to diversify their libraries and classrooms.
Kay sells handmade Arab crafts and cards to promote a positive image of Arab culture at select stores in Seattle, WA, and Washington, DC. In 2002, Kay created an Arabic Alphabet Animal line that now includes two posters, game cards, magnets, and a coloring book. Kay teaches MENA art education to various schools in the Pacific Northwest and has been an artist in residence in several summer camps. In her spare time, Kay enjoys being a docent at the Seattle Art Museum and in the Spring, Kay takes adults on an Art & Cooking Moroccan educational tour. She is currently writing a children’s picture book on Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, a shero for her 3 daughters.
Connect with her: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest
Aditi Wardhan Singh
Author of the renowned Sparkling Me children’s books and books on multicultural parenting, Aditi Wardhan Singh is an award-winning, best-selling author of seven books. She is an authoritative voice on cultural sensitivity and empowerment, featured on numerous global publications and broadcast networks like NBC, CBS, HuffPost, Thrive, Richmond Family Magazine, Reading with Your Kids podcast, etc. Her passion for diversifying dialogue within multicultural families led her to found the collaborative RaisingWorldChildren.com platform. Today, she aims to help parents diversify their libraries by lifting other multicultural authors like herself. In her spare time, she enjoys choreographing dance recitals, volunteering, and having impromptu dance parties with her two charming kids.
Her upcoming works include a multicultural children’s book about belonging and a unique bilingual Hindi-English resource for children.
Afsaneh Moradian
Afsaneh Moradian has loved writing stories, poetry, and plays since childhood. After receiving her master’s in education, she took her love of writing into the classroom where she began teaching children how to channel their creativity. Her passion for teaching has lasted for over two decades. Afsaneh now homeschools her child and coaches homeschooling parents who are struggling to homeschool their neurodiverse and high-needs children.
Afsaneh Moradian is the author of the picture books, Jamie is Jamie: A Book About Being Yourself and Playing Your Way, Jamie and Bubbie: A Book About People’s Pronouns, and Jamie’s Class Has Something to Say: A Book About Sharing with Grown-Ups (Free Spirit Publishing).
Her book Homeschooling Out of the Box: A Child-Centered Approach to Teaching Your Unique Child is available on Amazon
Connect with Afsaneh via her website or on YouTube and Twitter.
Agatha Rodi Books
Agatha Rodi lives in Patras, Greece. She’s an educator/writer/columnist/
The Hellenic Tourism Organization has under the auspices of the organization the «Story Telling Waves» workshops, Agatha mentors, as part of the «Kimolos Experience» Festival, organized by the Kimolistes NGO, on the Cycladic island of Kimolos. The workshops have to do with creative writing, storytelling with the children’s participation related to the environment, Kimolos’ island tradition, and Lefcadio Hearn’s legacy at the Lefkada Festival in the Ionian Islands.
CoWeb: www.agatharodi.com & www.kimolistes.com, LinkedIn: Agatha Rodi, Facebook/Twitter/Goodreads: Agatha Rodi, Youtube: Agatha Rodi and Instagram: @agatha_rodi
All Done Monkey
Leanna is a stay-at-home mom and homeschooler. She draws inspiration from the Writings of the Bahá’í Faith and tries to raise her Monkeys in a fun, spiritual, loving environment. She and her husband, who is from Costa Rica, are raising their kids to be bilingual and bicultural but more importantly to be “world citizens.” All Done Monkey is dedicated to sharing this journey with you! All Done Monkey focuses on multiculturalism, global education, natural parenting, and spiritual education.
Leanna is the founder of Multicultural Kid Blogs. Connect with her: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest
Bethany Edwards & Biracial Bookworms:
Bethany Edwards is an elementary educator and reading specialist with experience teaching in the US and in international schools. She also offers reading courses for parents/caregivers at Biracial Bookworms Academy. Her goal is to help parents and educators raise readers, activists, and leaders using multicultural and diverse books, culturally rich experiences, and learning multiple languages.
Connect with Bethany on Pinterest Instagram Facebook Twitter Biracial Bookworms Academy, Goodreads
Discovering the World Through My Son’s Eyes
Frances Díaz Evans is a Latina author and educator. She holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Universidad del Este in Puerto Rico and a master’s degree in Spanish education from the College of Charleston in Charleston, South Carolina.
She is the founder and writer of the multicultural, bilingual parenting website, Discovering the World Through My Son’s Eyes and Discovering Español a business dedicated to teaching Spanish online.
Through her work as a multicultural and language advocate, she promotes and enhances Latino culture and the Spanish language both online and in her local community. Now, as an author, she hopes to continue to promote the love of Puerto Rico and the importance of bilingualism to children and teens around the world. Coco la cotorra puertorriqueña is her first children’s book.
Connect with her: Facebook LinkedIn Instagram Twitter Pinterest Outschool
Drama Mama Reads
Naima Carter Russell is a picture book lover, a multi-passionate creative, Atlanta mom, actress, and craft-a-holic. She is passionate about helping you find the best Black joy books, diversify your bookshelf & make story time more dramatic. When she’s not folding laundry she’s searching for picture books that enchant, surprise, encourage, inspire, and bring joy for her kids and yours!
Connect with her on Instagram, Facebook, and her blog.
Eugenia Chu & Brandon Makes Jiǎo Zi (餃子)
Eugenia Chu is an attorney, turned stay-at-home mom, turned award-winning and best-selling children’s book author. She is Chinese-American and lives in Miami with her husband and son, Brandon, who is the inspiration for her stories. She has been a presenter at numerous schools, libraries, and book festivals.
When Brandon was very little, the author couldn’t find children’s storybooks to read to him that touched upon Chinese culture and which included some Chinese (Mandarin) words to teach and/or reinforce his Chinese vocabulary, so she started writing her own. She is the author of Brandon Makes Jiǎo Zi (餃子), a picture book; Brandon Goes to Beijing – Běijīng (北京), a chapter book; Brandon Goes to Hong Kong – Xiānggǎng (香港), a chapter book; and Celebrating Chinese New Year, a nonfiction book. She also has new books coming out, so stay tuned!
Connect with Eugenia via her website, Twitter, and Instagram,
Growing Book by Book
Jodie Rodriguez is the founder of Growing Book by Book where she helps you bring joy and play into children’s lives through books. Jodie has worked with thousands of families and educators during her 25-year career. When she’s not working, she’s reading, gardening, cooking, and nibbling on dark chocolate.
Connect with her: Pinterest | Facebook | Twitter
Growing Up Gupta
Nikita Gupta, MBA, is a writer, author, blogger, and entrepreneur. Nikita is globally known for her multicultural lifestyle blog, Growing Up Gupta. On the blog, she shares her journey as an African American woman married to a South Asian/Indian man and also a plentitude of multicultural narratives. In addition to advice on interracial/intercultural dating and marriage, multiracial and multicultural parenting, fusion recipes, book reviews, culture, and more. Her new multicultural and bilingual children’s book is called I Love Masala Me.
Nikita has been a featured contributor for the Huffington Post, The Times of India, Brown Girl Magazine, South Asian Buzz, The Parent Voice Magazine, Multicultural Kids Blogs, Multiracial Family Man, among others. She has also been featured on podcasts with Indian-Interracial Marriage, Multiracial Family Man, Invisible India, and more.
Connect Nikita on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest.
Julie Yeros & Globe Trottin’ Kids
Maria Wen Adcock and Bicultural Mama
MaryAnne Kochenderfer & Mama Smiles-Joyful Parenting
MaryAnne was raised in five countries on three continents. She currently lives in California with her husband and their four children. MaryAnne blogs at Mama Smiles about building a rewarding family life through mindful parenting and educational and creative family activities. MaryAnne has a Masters in education and a Ph.D. in medicine. She enjoys freelance writing and photography.
Connect with Mama Smiles on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram,
Miss Panda Chinese
Amanda Hsiung-Blodgett is an Intercultural Language Consultant and the founder of Miss Panda Chinese, an online resource for parents and educators. Amanda is passionate about making learning Mandarin Chinese simple, building bridges between cultures, and facilitating positive learning experiences for children.
Amanda has worked and taught on four continents. Parents and children know her as “Miss Panda”. She is the Chinese language consultant for the top educational program, World Party Seasons 4 and 5 on Netflix. First Mandarin Sounds: an awesome Chinese word book is her debut children’s book. She adopts the Montessori approach to guide readers to learn essential Mandarin sounds with playful Chinese words. Her streaming album, “Let’s Learn Mandarin Chinese with Miss Panda!” has been assisting non-native families to acquire their first Chinese expressions with ease and fun. Furthermore, you can listen to her Playful Chinese podcast on your favorite podcast platform.
Connect with Amanda at Miss Panda Chinese | Linkedin | Facebook | Instagram | Youtube
Multicultural Kid Blogs
Multicultural Kid Blogs is a supportive community that brings together parents, educators, bloggers, writers, and artists from across the world. Our mission is to inspire and support parents, caregivers, and educators raising the next generation of global citizens through arts, activities, crafts, food, language, and love. We do this by creating educational and parenting content that celebrates global cultures, languages, and belief systems and by promoting diversity in all its forms while recognizing our common concerns and dreams for our children.
Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram
Serge Smagarinsky {Australia}
Serge Smagarinsky {@PictureBK Serge} is a picture book bibliophile and writer. He is currently working on several manuscripts and is also putting together an illustration portfolio.
Serge studied picture book writing at the Australian Writers Centre, as well as learning through countless workshops, conferences, books, and critique partners. He was a winner of the pitching competition at the Creative Kids Tale festival in 2019 and the #50PreciousWords contest in 2018.
Serge writes sophisticated picture books to evoke feelings, provoke thoughts, and inspire action. With formal qualifications including a BE, BCom, and MBA, he relies on his solution design background to help his characters resolve their challenges.
Serge lives in Sydney, Australia with his wife, two kids, and pet cavoodle. He is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI), and the Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA), and is active in social media groups.
Connect with Serge via his website, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest
Shoumi Sen
Shoumi Sen is the creator of “From The Toddler Diaries”, a series of children’s books on Indian culture and mythology. Her beautifully illustrated picture books ‘Celebrate Holi With Me!’ and ‘Celebrate Durga Puja With Me!’ have received rave reviews from kids and parents alike and she is getting ready to launch her next book, ‘Celebrate Onam With Me!’
Shoumi is a Strategy, Sales, and Marketing professional at a global energy management company. She studied engineering at BITS Pilani and The University of Maryland, College Park, and lives in California with her husband and daughter. Her childhood in Paris, Bombay, and Dubai provided her with opportunities to appreciate how Indians preserve their cultural connectedness even while living abroad.
In Shoumi’s words, “Living outside India, it is sometimes tough for parents to ensure that their children remain connected to their Indian roots, while at the same time, appreciating the culture of the place they are growing up in. Books can certainly help with that challenge and my hope is that ‘From The Toddler Diaries’ can play a part in helping our children grow into global citizens.”
Connect with Shoumi via her website, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
GLOBAL CoHost Svenja Gernand and Colours of Us {South Africa}
Svenja is an adoptive mom and social worker, originally from Germany, living in South Africa. As a mom and adoptive mom of two little black girls, she always searches for multicultural children’s books that have a positive message, and that do not support stereotypes. She shares her findings on her website, Colours of Us.
Svenja is passionate about promoting diversity in children’s literature and toys. She believes that all children deserve to see themselves reflected in the books they read and the toys they play with. Because representation matters!
Connect with Colours of Us via her website which is filled with wonderful diverse booklists, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram
GLOBAL CoHost Taruna Kapoor {India}
I am a Principal and an administrator in India with experience of more than 20 years. I currently work in a countryside school and am a mentor to wonderful and curious students. I have been associated with Microsoft since 2018 and have completed more than 150 courses, owing to which I have been awarded the title of “Microsoft Innovative Expert”. I am a certified National Geographic Educator and a certified Apple Teacher. I have been associated with these institutions and have worked hard towards learning innovative techniques by collaborating with people all around the world to help my students become ‘global citizens.’
Owing to the collaborations with fellow educators on Microsoft, my students and I have broken through the rudimentary classrooms and generalized syllabus. In addition to the general books issued by the school as per the syllabus, I encourage my students to read multicultural books, which is the best way to promote literacy by knowing the culture and language of people around the world. I also encourage my students to improve their creative writing skills by making them work on comprehension, creative writing, and various other activities. This initiative is based on the thought that ‘A child who reads will be an adult who thinks.
My passion for teaching and learning has brought me where I am today. I have grown and evolved from a kindergarten teacher to a leader with a love and passion for my work and kids.
Connect with her: Twitter: @TarunaK78648372 LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/taruna-kapoor-57ab1834, Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/taruna.kapoor.5 and Instagram: Taruna_Kapoor
